//------------------------------//
// Act 3: Chapter 18 
// Story: To See Her One More Time 
// by TheMessenger 
//------------------------------//

Act 3


I still have a lot of life ahead of me, and I plan to make the best of it.

For myself.

For my little Dashie.


Chapter 18

"So, that was..." Dr. Rosalene waved her hand in the air as she thought. "Well, it was definitely a thing."

"I've seen things before, Eva," Neil said, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I've seen plenty of things. Dinosaur skeletons are a thing. MP860s are a thing. Helping geezers fly to the moon? Totally a thing. This?" Neil flapped his arms wildly. "This is beyond things. Heck, I'd say this is even beyond stuffs. I can't think of any word that properly conveys the insanity of the situation so I'm just going to make a word up: veshch. Yes, this is a veshch." 

Eva raised an eyebrow as she gave her partner a curious look. "You're taking this far worse than I thought you would, calm down."

"Calm down? Eva, were you paying attention?" Neil nearly screamed, grabbing handfuls of his own hair. "We just saw walking, talking, technicolor ponies literally walk straight out of a cartoon. Robert's daughter, the girl we're supposed to be reuniting him with, is a pegasus with rainbow colored hair, from a television show made for little girls. We've just discovered that a world behind the plasma screen is real, with real beings living real lives. Eva, do you have any idea what this entails?"

"That our chances of becoming the Doctor's companions just increased dramatically?"

Neil opened his mouth, then closed it as he scratched his chin thoughtfully. "Actually, I was going to say that writing a believable report for this mission's going to be impossible, not to mention how are we supposed to reunite a man with a pony from another world, but yeah, I guess that'd be pretty cool."

"Well, we can discuss the implications of other universes trapped in TV after we finish the job," Eva said, folding her arms over her chest. "Now, we can't go any further than when the pegasus returned to her world so..."

"Wait, hold on," Neil butted in, holding out his hand to stop her. "I'm still trying to wrap my head around the whole there's a real world of magical talking ponies out there, give me a minute."

"We don't have a minute. We're on a timer, remember? I can't imagine Robert can last much longer."

"Okay, then I just need a second." Dr. Watts took a deep breath. "Okay, so what if we just made that pegacorn--"

"Pegacorn?" Eva repeated questioningly.

"Pegasus-unicorn, you know, the tall white one," Neil explained. "Anyways, what if we made her and all the others that were trying to take her away disappear? That way, Robert remains with his kid--wait is kid a baby horse or is that just goats?"

"Just goats. Continue."

"Well, then Robert gets to stay with his little pony--" Neil bit back a snicker.

"Neil..."

"Sorry, sorry," Neil quickly apologized. "Anyways, he and the pony stay together and live the rest of their lives in Robert's memories in happiness. We wrap things up in a nice cheesy bow, he dies happy, bing, bang, boom shakalaka, mission complete. Well, until we have to write the report, which I'm still not looking forward to."

Eva chewed on her lip doubtfully as she considered Neil's suggestion. "Our agreement was to reunite Robert with his daughter, not to prevent their separation."

"Oh come on," Neil groaned. "He'll be happy regardless."

"Maybe, but that's not our mission. Besides, do you really think preventing Rainbow Dash from leaving will make Robert happy? You saw that last memory; he was ready to let her go. He told us what he wants, and that's to see his daughter one more time." Eva sighed. "No loopholes or shortcuts this time Neil."

Neil frowned and huffed. "Well, I don't want Eddie to yell at me again. Fine, we'll do it the hard way. To legit to quit now. Hmm." Dr. Watts scratched the back of his head. "Okay, so all Robert needs to do is to find a way into pony land or whatever and..." Slowly, his eyes widened. "Aw, the hard way's extra hard this time around. And the furthest we can embed his desire is right after his daughter leaves, so who knows if the motivation will be strong enough or if he has enough time."

"Maybe, maybe not, we might have to give Robert an extra push, like with Jonny."

"That's going to be some push," Neil said, laughing weakly. "I mean, we've got to motivate him into inventing inter-dimensional travel or something in maybe forty years. It'a going to have to be something drastic." 

"Neil, why are you staring at me like that?" 

The young man pointed his expecting eyes elsewhere. "Just thought you might have an idea already," he replied. "I mean, you kind of have a knack at this sort of thing."

Eva shook her head. "Let's return to the last memory," she suggested. "We'll prepare the desire and plant it as far as we can, then see if there's any change. We can go back to the last memory, right?"

Neil examined the device on his wrist. "Everything looks stable, I think so." He tapped it a few times and the living room reappeared.

"...how could I blame anypony for--"

"And pause." Robert froze with his mouth open just as Neil raised his finger. "Alright, so considering how everything else has gone so smoothly tonight," he began sarcastically, "how much trouble do you think fixing the desire here is going to be?"

Eva simply shut her eyes and sighed. With a few taps on her own instrument, the room faded away again, leaving the two in an empty white area.

"Well nuts," Neil groaned as he scanned the endless space. "Where are all the mementos?" 

"Hold on, look." Eva pointed at a few blurry figures that had suddenly appeared. Slowly, the figures became more distinct and more detailed until Eva and Neil could determine what objects they were easily. They separated into clusters, with each cluster surrounding an image of Robert. Each Robert differed from the others by age, from the old white haired Robert they had actually met, to the middle aged Robert they had seen sharing a cake with the Shoichet boys, all the way to the young depressed Robert they saw working at a cashier. A few additional figures stood beyond them, hidden by impenetrable shadows.

"Okay, so we need to create a connection from there..." The black haired scientist gestured to the old Robert they had spoken to earlier this night. "...to here." She pointed to the Robert they had frozen in mid speech in the living room before arriving here. "So, let's see, we can start from the tree and...and Neil, what are you doing?"

Neil's entire body below the head had vanished, leaving his bespectacled head floating right above Eva's shoulder. "Well, you know what they say, two heads are better than one," he joked.

"Is this really the time?" Eva asked, bring her hand to her face.

"Making bad jokes is how I cope with stress, and by Jove, I am stressed."

"Then let's get this done." Eva's finger flew along the screen of her device. Her body disappeared, leaving behind her floating. She drifted toward the large that stood beside old Robert and waited it to finish glowing.

"Now here next," Neil called from besides a younger looking Robert. "This one's next, I think," he said, nodding to a nearby memento. As Eva approached, a long trail of light followed closely behind her. Once she arrived next to her partner, the trail extend out, connecting the tree to the object. Both Roberts began to shine brightly, as if cocooned in warm sunlight. 

Eva released the breath she held. "Okay, we're on the right track. Next is..."

More connections between the time periods were made as the two heads floated between the period's respective Roberts. Once a link had appeared between every memory they had visited this evening, Neil and Eva drew back, their bodies slowly materializing. 

"Like Christmas," Neil muttered, squinting to protect his eyes from the brightness in front of him. His attention went to the little device on his wrist, and he pressed a few areas on its screen. The device lit up with a green glow and emitted a short shrill beep. "Okay, desire implanted. You think this will work?" Neil asked.

Eva shrugged. "We've never set a desire so late in someone's life, who knows? We're entering unprecedented territory now."

"I'd say we've been in unprecedented territory for awhile," Neil grumbled. "Talking ponies, weird fluctuations with the instruments, and a house with actual coffee in stock? Heck, I'm not sure if anything else could surprise me tonight."

"Well, if this works, that'd be a pleasant surprise for me." Eva sighed. "Alright, you stay here and make sure none of the links break or anything like that. I'm going to the most present memory to see if anything changed there."

"Alright," Neil agreed with a short nod. "I'll try to figure a plan B out and stand here like an idiot talking to himself because you've already gone and left." Neil frowned at the spot his partner had been occupying just a few seconds ago. "Seriously, you could have at least waited for an answer," he said as he began to pace. Neil paused just as he lifted his right foot as Eva reappeared right in his path.

"So, any luck?"

Eva shook her head. "No pleasant surprise tonight," she said, rubbing her forehead. "The scene was absolute the same as the one we had visited earlier."

"Really?" Neil asked, his eyebrow rising. "He was still napping under the tree in the rain? There wasn't any change at all?"

"None, just like--"

"--with Jonny," Neil finished with a groan. "Is it too much to ask for a job without a freaking hitch for once?"

"To be fair, most jobs really aren't this difficult," Eva said. "Well, any ideas?"

"Plenty, none of them good. I was hoping you had a backup plan before we resorted to giving up."

"And you're sure the desire was transmitted?"

"Abso-posi-lutely. And nothing changed on my end either, so we know the issue has nothing to do with desire being implanted, it's just not working.

Eva pursed her lips. "Let's return to that last memory," she suggested, "the one when Rainbow Dash left him. There might be a clue there, something, anything that'll help us motivate Robert."

"You think something like that exists?" Neil inquired as the blank space surrounding them was replaced with the old living room. Robert was still in the middle of his speech, with the ponies around him watching with wide eyes. "I mean, did you see anything like that beforehand?"

"No," was Eva's hesitant answer. "I didn't catch anything obvious, but if there's something that'll trigger a strong reaction to the implanted desire, it'll be here, I can feel it."

"Woman's intuition?" Neil wonder aloud as he checked the pictures on the wall. 

"I don't know, maybe," Eva replied as she too began to search the living room. "Though it'd be nice to know what we're looking for in the first place," she added, brushing a long strand of hair out of her face.

"Hmm, well, hmm..."

"What are you thinking?" Eva prompted.

"Just thinking, you know," her partner said. "Like, with Jonny, we had River whom was kind of sort of in the way of his dream. Like, how being with River meant he didn't have go to the moon to find her again. So I'm just thinking here, was there something like that, something that would have prevented Robert from wanting to find his daughter again? I know I can't remember anything like that," Neil grumbled as he leaned against the wall. "Can you? I mean, you're probably right about it being in this memory, but I'm sort stumped here."

"Hmm. I'd hate to admit it, but you might be right about this."

"Yes! One point for the Neilstro!"

"Play the memory again," Eva ordered. "What we're looking for might be a little further ahead."

Neil's device lit up again, and Robert continued to speak.

"--sending Rainbow Dash here?" he was gasping as he brought his hands back down to his sides. Robert cleared his throat and sniffed. "These years have been the best fifteen years of my life. If anything, I feel the opposite; I wish, have to thank you, Twilight, and the rest--"

"Skip a bit," said Eva, tapping her foot impatiently.

"Yeah, I'm not sure I could stand going through that speech a second time." 

The watch-like instrument made a low hum as the scene changed. Robert now stood awkwardly as the pink pony with the mane like cotton candy clung to his waist.

"THANKS!" screamed the pink pony as Robert laughed. He turned to the rest of the ponies, giving each one a short nod and a sad smile. He stopped at Rainbow Dash, whom smiled back.

"Are you ready now, Rainbow Dash?" the purple unicorn asked as she slowly approached. Rainbow turned, took a deep breath, and nodded. Her bright red eyes closed as the unicorn's horn gently touched her forehead.

"Another skip?" Neil asked.

Eva shook her head. "We're already pretty close to the end, just let it play out."

Both of them had to shut their eyes as light flooded the room. When they opened them, the ponies had vanished, leaving Robert by himself. The two watched Robert rush upstairs and fling open the door to Rainbow Dash's old room. They followed him back into the living room and watched him fall back onto the couch. They spotted the photo album on the table in front of Robert before he did. 

"It's the book!" Neil exclaimed. "That cheesy note and all those pictures and memories--"

"They must have been enough to give him closure," said Eva with a nod. "Knowing that Rainbow Dash was happy and well kept him content. That's what's interfering with the desire implanted."

"So if we remove the photo album--"

"If we remove the photo album, we'll remove the contentment he got from knowing that Rainbow Dash left on good terms. That should make room for the desire to see her again."

"Hold on," Neil said, raising a hand, "why would simply knowing that she left amicably keep Robert from wanting to see her again? I mean, it's not like have a bunch of photos is going to stop him from missing her."

"It's not that simple," Eva replied impatiently. "The note and the pictures might have eliminated any doubts or regrets in his mind, which may have resurfaced after Robert lost his memory. No regrets, no desire. It doesn't matter what the reason is, we don't have the time to speculate right now,"

"So erasing the photo album creates doubts and regrets..."

"Yes, and that generates, or at least bolsters, the desire to see Rainbow Dash again in order to make sure he was a good father or something like that. Do the details really matter right now?" Eva groaned.

"I'm not exactly sweating about that," Neil began, rubbing the back of his head. "It's just, I can deal with implanting desires and motivations and stuff but creating regrets? Isn't our job to help geezers die without baggage, not give them more?"

Eva brought her hand to her forehead and sighed. "The lack of sleep is finally getting to you," she said. "You're thinking too deeply into this."

"Me, thinking too deeply?"

"Believe me, I'm just as surprised," Eva quipped as she pinched the bridge of her nose. "Look, fulfilling Robert's wish will still let him die without any regrets. Any we create now will disappear once he sees Rainbow Dash again, especially since we'll be basing her personality on the album and her note."

"I guess that makes sense, it still feels a little weird. Maybe, ngh, I don't know," Neil moaned, throwing his arms in the air. "I mean, I took this job so geezers could die in peace. Making them unhappy first, it just feels so...ironic."

"Sometimes life is ironic. Robert's unhappiness will only temporary," Eva dismissed. "We need to think about the big picture, remember?"

"Yeah, sure." The bespectacled man shrugged. "So, just like moving River from Jonny's memories then?"

"Hopefully with less hassle. You're not going to give me any trouble tonight, are you?"

Neil held up his hands in surrender. "Hey, just tell me what I need to do so I can complain about how bossy you are."

"Rewind this memory a bit," Eva commanded. She was already focusing on her device, tapping away at the screen. "Just before Robert sees the album, so I have a chance to remove it."

"Done," Neil announced. "Your turn--"

"Done." 

"It's not a race," said Neil as he folded his arms against his chest. "So now what?"

"Nothing, at least nothing here. We're done with this memory, unless you want to see what immediately happens to Robert now that the photo album's gone, but I wouldn't expect much," Eva said. Her attention returned to her device. "All we have to do now is go to the most recent memory and make sure his reunion goes smoothly. Then we're finally done for the night. Ready?"

Neil took a hesitant step forward. "I've got a bad feeling about this," he said.

"You're probably just hungry."

"Yeah, maybe. You're probably right." Neil drew in a quick breath, exhaled, and nodded. "Alright, hit it, let's finish this."

Light flooded the living room the moment Eva's finger touched the screen on her wrist. Neil shut his eyes instinctively as the flash threatened to blind him.


*


The first thing Neil noticed was the soft beep of a machine. He peeked from under his eyelids, slowly opening his eyes wider as his vision adjusted.

"Well, this is new," he said as he looked around the white room he was in. There were no windows, but several curtains hung from the ceiling. In the corner was a small television suspended from above. On both sides of the small plain bed were several monitors and machines, with wires running every which way. Neil heard the soft blips and beeps the machines made as lines of green and red light flashed across their screens. Neil followed the trail of wires as they led to the outlets on the walls, to other machines, and to Robert, whom laid in the bed under plain white covers. A large clear mask sat over his mouth and nose.

Eva hovered over their client, shaking her head and muttering under her breath. "No no no..." he thought he heard her say.

Neil gulped. "This is definitely new," he whispered. He turned to his partner. "Eva, this doesn't look like a reunion."

It took Eva a moment to respond. "Yeah," she croaked.

"It kind of looks like we're in a hospital."

"Yeah."

"And those machines look an awful like life support."

Eva's knuckles whitened as she tightened her grip on the bed railing. "Yeah," she muttered.

"So, uh..." Neil coughed and tugged at his collar. "What happened here?" 

Eva shook her head but did not speak. She continued to stare at the unconscious Robert.

"This wasn't part of the plan, was it?"

Eva lifted her head and glared. "No," she growled. "This wasn't what I thought would happen."

"Well, what happened?" Neil asked again.

"I don't know!" Eva shouted, making Neil step back. "I don't know what happened here! I didn't think getting rid of those pictures was going to hospitalize him. I knew he'd probably be depressed, but I thought he'd get over it." Eva released the bed frame and grabbed her arms to stop herself from shuddering. "I thought he'd be stronger. I didn't think this..."

"Wait, what are trying to say?" Neil said. Cautiously, he approached his partner and his client. As he got closer, Neil could see how young Robert was at this time; he didn't look too much older than when Rainbow Dash left. "He didn't try to..." The man swallowed. "Did he?"

"I don't know, probably. It wasn't an accident, we know the memory altering process can't simulate those."

"So whatever happened here, he must have done it to himself," Neil concluded. He looked over at one of the screens and watched the numbers gradually decrease as Robert's chest rose and fell. "Uh, what'll happen if he, well, croaks in his memories? Can that even happen?"

"I don't know," said Eva. She grabbed a handful of her hair. "It's never happened before. His entire nervous system might just shut down."

"Okay, well, so let's not panic." Neil began to pace across the length of the room. "Let's not panic. Oh, can we restore the old memory so the album'll still be there?" 

"That won't work. We've already replaced his old memories with this new set," Eva said, slumping over. "If we try to restore the old set, everything we've accomplished tonight will be resist, and we don't have anymore time. I-I messed up."

Neil stumbled and tripped. "I'm sorry, what?"

Eva rubbed her forehead and her temple. "I messed up. I didn't think this would happen, but maybe...maybe I should have. I should have accounted for this. I mean, he just lost his daughter and any evidence that she ever existed, of course he was going to be unstable."

"Well, even you can't predict everything."

"But I should have!" Eva cried. "It's my job! I'm supposed to be able to...to..."

"Eva..."

"I-I'm sorry Neil, you were right," Eva said softly, lowering her head. "We shouldn't have taken this risk. W-we failed this mission. I failed. I can't believe..."

"Eva!" Neil screamed, grabbing Eva's arms. "Listen to yourself! We haven't failed yet, we can still fix this. We've never failed before, and I don't plan on starting today. Say it with me, we. Are. Awe--"

"What the hell are we supposed to do?" Eva snarled, blinking and rubbing her eyes. She push Neil away. "We don't have time to start over, and Robert's dying in his memories now. How are we supposed to motivate him into accomplishing his wish now?"

"Uh, well..." Neil looked around, thinking. "Can we go deeper?"

"Is this any time for your stupid innuendos?"

"No, like in that old movie with dreams and DiCaprio," Neil clarified. "Like, what if we made another memory alteration machine here, and used that to drive Robert here into waking up."

"Do you know how complicated that would be? How do you know that would even work?"

"So we take a risk, it might work."

"Might? Risks are what got us here!"

"Yeah, and thanks to them we managed to get this far," Neil argued. "Maybe we can...we can..." His eyes that had been scanning the room for solutions suddenly grew wide. "I have an idea."

"Where are you going?" Eva demanded as she watched her coworker march over to the television in the corner.

"Taking a risk," Neil replied. The black box turned on, displaying a screen of static. "Just trust me on this, alright?" Neil lifted his hand toward the flickering television. "Metsu Hadoken!"

The black and white flickers were replaced with defined colored images. "Bravo, Knight Rainbow Dash!" Eva heard from the TV speakers.

"Isn't there... somepony else who could... take over the jousting demonstration with you?"

There was a short scoff. One of Robert's fingers twitched.

"The fate of an entire empire rests on us showing these ponies a good time. But, y'know, if that isn't important to you..."

The surrounding monitors began to beep more intensely. Robert's hand tightened into a fist as the yellow pegasus on the television screen released a soft whimper. 

"Okay, okay, I'll take it easy on you next time. But not too easy. I've got a reputation to maintain!"

Robert's eyes slowly opened as doctors and nurses began to rush in. "He's awake!" they cried out, failing to notice the two Sigmund Corp. agents that were already fading from sight. One nurse move forward and switched the television off before returning to his post. 

"I...I think that did it," Eva whispered. "I can't believe that worked."

"Hey, never underestimate the power of a Hadoken." Neil gave a weary chuckle before sighing. "Well, we're not finished yet. Ready to keep going?"

Neil held out a hand toward his partner. Eva simply stared at the outstretched limb until Neil awkwardly lowered it. As he did so, Eva grabbed it with her own hand and gave him an exhaust grin.

The room faded away.